Chronically working with the poor posture without awareness leads to spine displacement, and therefore the spinal cord and the organs in abdominal cavity are vulnerable to compression. As internet getting widespread, computers become the necessary standard equipment to various businesses. However, with the limitation of the arrangement to office furniture and the long-time operation of the keyboard and mouse, office workers suffer from neck and shoulder pain. Additionally, people work in sedentary position at the office desk usually results in rigidity at lower limbs. They slouch all the time while operate computers and handle paperwork.
Even outside of the office, yet as mobile devices prevail over the world, modern people keep themselves in poor postures using mobile devices most of the day. The lack of sport and neglect to exercise, leaves the lower limbs rigid, the shoulders protracted, the upper body in kyphosis and forward head posture. These habits and postures are substantially detrimental to health.
While certain muscle pain occurs, people may do some stretches to sooth and relax the state of tenseness in muscles. However, some pain and discomfort are bounded as the user try to correct unhealthy habitual postures through stretching. When user feels the pain caused by the stretch, the defense mechanism of human instinct drives muscles to resist for protecting the muscles themselves. This mechanism prevents the pain yet antagonizes the stretch. This defense mechanism will dramatically reduce the actual effect of the body stretching movements. Most people stop stretching before actual effectiveness sets in.
Therefore, when exercising body extending movements, also known as stretch, it is more appropriate the exercise proceeds in low intensity and high frequency. It would be ideal if the stretch is exercised with certain auxiliary equipment. Under the assistance of certain auxiliary equipment, discomforts could be eliminated and enjoyment enhanced. The auxiliary equipment could also establish an intended constraint regarding the intensity of the stretch, the user may have more clear awareness about the extent of the stretch.
The ease of use for the auxiliary system has also been considered as one major motivation for users to use it frequently. Being able to apply this auxiliary stretch equipment independently, all by the user himself, is a huge benefit of this current design over other existing rehabilitation equipment. Furthermore, such auxiliary stretch system can be correctly applied without the supervision of professionals.
Nowadays, the common stretch exercise devices on the market are primarily made up of two loop structures for the user to step upon and accompanied by one long elastic strap to combine the loop structures. The user grabs the middle of the long elastic strap and antagonizes the force from the straightened legs with the force exerted by the arms and the upper body. With the collaborated movements, the effect of stretching is achieved for the muscles and tendons at the thighs and calves such as gastrocnemius, soleus and Achilles tendon.
However, the force exerted by the thigh and calf is surprisingly powerful. For example, Achilles tendon bears four times the weight of the body during walking. While running, the workload of Achilles tendon is even seven times more than the body weight. The griping strength of a normal person is inadequate to hold the middle of the long elastic strap of the above mentioned device to stably straightened legs so as to accomplish the stretch.
Moreover, the lower limbs are obviously much stronger than the upper limbs. It is difficult to antagonize the strength of the straightened lower limbs with the muscles of the forearms and the arms of the upper limbs. Therefore, the user often needs to exert additional force to recovering his/her own body from prior forward flexion position to be straight. The above mentioned movement is driven by the muscles on the back during the state of forward flexion. To exert forces at the above mentioned state leaves the user vulnerable to sports injuries and the upper body of the user more flexed, and thus it is obviously contrary to the purpose of relaxing the muscles over the whole body. It is not wise to harm the upper body just for stretching the lower limbs.
The hospital with rehabilitation departments or the fitness center may provide various types of equipments for users to stretch. However, these types of equipments usually are generally bulky, hard to store and impossible to be carried. It is inconvenient for users as most of these equipments require professional supervision and assistance. The users risk themselves for potential injuries if they try to operate these equipments on their own.